As seen in the trailer for the expansion, Lost in Nightmares begins with Jill using her iconic lockpicking to enter the Spencer estate. Immediately, a great atmosphere can be felt and I actually got wary of the surroundings and took things slowly. The puzzles were, compared to the one in Resident Evil 5, a bit more complicated but still obvious. I loved the feeling of running away for these new and highly responsive executioners. With only a handgun and some grenades, it felt exactly like the first time I played Public Assembly. The fight with Wesker definately was one of the highlights, along with the nostalgia by replicating the mansion and ‘zombies’. On veteran, you  really had to have nimble fingers in order to counter Wesker’s attacks. Plus, even if you got hit by Wesker, it looked amazing. Getting hit and flying around was never so entertaining. I enjoyed every bit of the DLC, but I was disappointed to find out that it was really a short ride: I only spent one hour and fifteen minutes on it.

Resident Evil 5 was an amazing game and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I must admit: if the atmosphere were like this DLC, it would’ve been perfect. Really. Highly recommended DLC (and not to forget: Mercenaries Reunion!).

I remember the days when I got my Gameboy and Super Mario Land was my second game (Tetris being the first). Boy, this game was fun…and frustrating. Death was around every corner and continues were so very limited. Gaming sure has become soft compared to the ol’ days…Which doesn’t necessarily have to be bad but some current games really need to check their definition of “normal” and “hard” first.

The similarities are ALL over the place. The map layout, searching for ammo expansions, getting gear that unlocks other places, … I could go on like this forever.  A few notable ones were the speed booster, the fact that you have to get all key components in order to get the last upgrade (in Super Metroid, you had to kill all pre-bosses first before you could fight the final boss) and the achievement Jason Bailey (it’s a cheat for Metroid that gave you all equipment). Think about it, if an Xbox Live Arcade game can be this good, how awesome would another 2D Metroid game be? We can always hope…And don’t forget Metroid: Other M just yet.

As I was watching this movie, I kept thinking: “I wonder what book this movie is based on?”. To my surprise, it wasn’t based on any book. James Cameron created a new alien world from scratch and boy, did he succeed!

While the story was a bit cliche, it was brilliantly told. Everything you needed to know was put in place perfectly and the movie had just the right balance of humor, drama, action and romance. The cast couldn’t have been better either. Sam Worthington, probably best known for his role in Terminator: Salvation which was pretty damn solid (did I mention he looks pretty WOWSERS?), plays a great Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana managed to play Neytiri beyond perfect. Sigourney Weaver (Alien) is back in action as well and Michelle Rodriguez’s (Resident Evil) character Trudy was awesome. She being the “good bitch” fits her perfectly.

Most movies these days have great graphics and Avatar is no exception. The Na’vi, Pandora itself, all wonderfully animated.  As for the 3D graphics, I had expected more (I went to the 2D version first). I got a feeling that the 3D technology still has its flaws that need to be tweaked first before I can fully enjoy it.

I think it’s the first time I hear something from James Horner (well, that I actually know off), the audio composer of Avatar. Let’s just say that I have a new favorite composer…

All in all, I think it’s safe to say that Avatar is the best movie I saw this year and it’s definately one of the best I’ve ever seen in my life. I rarely go to the cinema twice for the same movie (The Dark Knight being the other one) so perhaps that’s an indication of how brilliant I find this movie. If you haven’t seen it yet: go to the cinema and be amazed! You HAVE to watch this on the big screen!

I was left in awe when I saw this short film for the first time. It might seem cruel at first, but if you think about it…That kiwi bird must have been working his whole life to achieve the one thing he wanted: to be able to fly. A very inspiring movie. Kudos to Madyeti47.

Getting up early, packing my bag and a two hour-trip later we arrived at the Firstlook event in Amsterdam right on time. There was already a queue outside and it kept getting bigger.

The first thing I noticed after walking around for a bit was that the convention was actually really small. I am comparing this with GamesCom in Cologne (I went there too) which is ofcourse totally unfair. However, I just can’t help thinking that the main area we were in was not even as big as one of the four to five main areas at GamesCom. Secondly, being someone that really likes goodies, the ones at Firstlook were disappointing at best. Pretty much everything consisted of posters, older issues of gaming magazines (!) and stickers. Now the REAL disappointing thing was the actual goodiehunt. This was announced on the official website and it took place at the main stage. Hunt? My ass. Just a bunch of people smacking each other for every goodie that was thrown into the public. Besides, it only lasted for a few minutes. In other words: LAME. The catering was WAY too expensive as well (€5,- for a hamburger).

After reading the above, you might think that I didn’t enjoy the Firstlook event at all but that luckily wasn’t the case. I got to smack my friends in Fairytale Fights and had a blast doing it. It was once again another great oppertunity to take pictures with the Canon. Besides, the posters weren’t all that bad. I have an awesome looking poster of Darksiders, one of the games I’m anxiously waiting for. Oh and I loved the Rabbid that was trying to act as a DJ, he was really acting funny.

The lineup wasn’t bad at all either. Most of the games that were announced on the official website were playable and people were informed of those that weren’t playable due to communication errors. Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Darksiders, White Knight Chronicles and Resident Evil The Darkside Chronicles are  a few of the highly anticipated games that were all playable.

Firstlook photos
GamesCom photos

Unfortunately, no other sequels have been released except for One Must Fall Battlegrounds which turned out to be disappointing. One Must Fall 2097 can be downloaded here. You’ll need the DOS emulator DOSbox as well.

A video after the cut shows you a gameplay video along with the nostalgic soundtrack.